helping web developers create the best websites possible

In this day and age there is so much emphasis put on your website and the importance of making it visually appealing to your visitors. You don’t have to be a WordPress expert or proficient in coding in order to have a better looking website that converts visitors there are tons of plugins that can help you achieve your goals. Here are 5 WordPress plugins to make your site better.

Floating Social Bar

To use social media effectively you need to get as many people as possible to see the content that you publish on your website. You can do this with the Floating Social Bar, it’s a light weight plugin that can help increase social shares. It supports all of the major social networking platforms like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

Not only does your site need to be mobile responsive, it needs to be incredibly easy to navigate. You will lose visitors quickly if they can’t find what they are looking for. This plugin can help with navigation problems by delivering content based on relevance. This helps first time visitors to your site find what they need quickly and easily. Here is how you can set up relevanssi.

Contact Form 7

One of the most important components of any website is how your visitors can reach you and get their questions answered. Contact forms are often overlooked, but Contact Form 7 makes it easy to create beautiful forms to help you capture more information about your visitors. It can also help potential customers get their questions addressed quickly and easily.

If you are planning on doing a sale or offering a promotion to boost business that comes with a limited time offer then this is the ideal plugin for your site. Just add a simple shortcode to a page or post and you’re all set. The plugin will display a countdown to the expiration date of the offer. It encourages your visitors to take advantage of the sale NOW, rather than later. Once the offer expires the page goes offline and it can redirect any visitors to a message saying that the offer has expired.

WP Review

If you sell a product or service on your site then you already understand the value of client testimonials. This plugin goes well above that and makes sure that your ratings get included in the Google search results page. This plugin is fast and lightweight and you can structure the reviews with stars, points or a percentage score.

These plugins are all free and can help you create a great experience for your visitors and turning your visitors into customers.

One of the great things about building a website on the WordPress platform is the sheer amount of free themes that are at your disposal. Whether you want to put together an online store or just a small business website there are hundreds of options out there for you. Having so many themes to choose from can make picking the best one difficult, so let’s look at the 6 best free themes available for WordPress.

Let’s start with eCommerce

Shop Isle

This theme is one of your best options for putting together an online store. There is a large header section and the homepage has some grid based galleries that you can use to display sale items. This gives you a great visual medium for selling products. Shop Isle is ideal for someone who wants to sell clothes or jewelry where images are needed to catch the attention of your customer.

Store Front

Store Front gives you a ton of control for a free theme, there are several layouts and color schemes that you can use to customize your store. The theme even gives you some extra options for customization like thumbnails for product categories. It even includes a full width parallax slider on the homepage. This theme was developed by Woo Themes so it works seamlessly with the Woo Commerce plugin.

Vantage

Vantage is another great theme you can use to put together your online store. It works seamlessly with all of the plugins that you need, you can create your own image slider and it comes with Page Builder allowing you to use drag and drop elements to create your store. It works beautifully with Woo Commerce so you can sell your products easily. It is a nice looking theme meant to bring in your customers.

Now for some great business themes

Astrid

If you cater to an international market then Astrid comes ready for translation straight out of the box. It has a header section that you can use to create effective call to actions with text or buttons. This is ideal for converting website visitors into paying customers. There is a section of the theme that allows you to showcase your valuable team members that includes their pictures and what they do. You can incorporate client testimonials from valued customers who love your work.

Enlightenment

Enlightenment offers you different color options to help solidify your brand and you can take advantage of the featured image option to showcase photos on your homepage that tell visitors what your company is all about. There is an endless array of layouts and you can make sticky posts and the comments are threaded encouraging a dialogue.

Auberge

If you have a food business or another business that relies heavily on a visual medium to promote your business then Auberge might be perfect for you. There is a slideshow on the home page that allows you to showcase your products and you can customize the color scheme to make it work for you. This theme is great for a food or fashion type of business.

There you go, some of the best themes available to create the right online presence for your business.